Money US Switzerland Sweden

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,628381,00.html

In 1998, for example, the richest 1 percent of Americans took home 14 percent of total income, while in Sweden the figure was only about 6 percent.

Wealth concentration is another matter, however. The richest 1 percent of Americans owned about 21 percent of all wealth in 2000.

In Switzerland in 1997, the richest percent owned 35 percent, and in Sweden -- despite that nation's egalitarian reputation -- the figure is 21 percent, exactly the same as for the Americans.

And if we take into account the massive moving of wealth offshore and off-book permitted by Sweden's tax authorities, the richest 1 percent of Swedes are proportionately twice as well off as their American peers.

Poverty

If we take absolute poverty to be living on the actual cash sum equivalent to half of median income for the original six nations of the EU, we see that many western European countries in 2000 had a higher percentage of poor citizens than the US -- not only Mediterranean countries, but also Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

Unemployment Benefits

Unemployment benefits in the US, which are often portrayed as derisory in the European media, are actually higher than in many European nations. When measured on a per capita basis, Greece, Britain, Italy and Iceland spend less than the US on unemployment.